Faith Ringgold
Peggy Orr
Professor Knight
Art History
April 12, 2009
Ringgold’s Story Quilts
Faith Ringgold’s artwork on her quilts is not only beautiful but literally
tells stories. Ringgold began her artistic career more than 35 years ago as a
painter. Today, she is best known for her painted story quilts -- art that combines
painting, quilted fabric and storytelling. She has exhibited in major museums in
the USA, Europe, South America, Asia, Africa, and the Middle East. She is in the
permanent collection of many museums including the Studio Museum in Harlem,
the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, and
The Museum of Modern Art. Ringgold received her Bachelors and Masters
degrees from The City College of New York many years ago. She taught in the
New York Public schools for 18 and one half years, however, today she is a
senior professor of art at University of California in San Diego, California
The content caught my attention to Ringgold’s image Tar Beach
(pg.1166). The image is acrylic on canvas paper, bordered with printed, painted,
quilted and pieced cloth, 741/4 x 681/2”. The subject of the story quilt illustrates a
Depression era girl's imaginative foray to heights from which she can see and
therefore claim her world. Picnicking on the roof of her family's Harlem apartment
building - a "tar beach" to which they bring fried chicken and roasted peanuts,
watermelon and beer, and not least, friends and laughter. Cassie pictures herself
soaring above New York City: above the George Washington Bridge, which her
father helped build; above the headquarters of the union that has denied him
membership, because of his half-black, half-Indian heritage; above the rooms in
which they live. Ringgold's strong figures and flattened perspective bring a
distinctive magic to this dreamy and yet wonderfully concrete vision, narrated
Professor Knight
Art History
April 12, 2009
Ringgold’s Story Quilts
Faith Ringgold’s artwork on her quilts is not only beautiful but literally
tells stories. Ringgold began her artistic career more than 35 years ago as a
painter. Today, she is best known for her painted story quilts -- art that combines
painting, quilted fabric and storytelling. She has exhibited in major museums in
the USA, Europe, South America, Asia, Africa, and the Middle East. She is in the
permanent collection of many museums including the Studio Museum in Harlem,
the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, and
The Museum of Modern Art. Ringgold received her Bachelors and Masters
degrees from The City College of New York many years ago. She taught in the
New York Public schools for 18 and one half years, however, today she is a
senior professor of art at University of California in San Diego, California
The content caught my attention to Ringgold’s image Tar Beach
(pg.1166). The image is acrylic on canvas paper, bordered with printed, painted,
quilted and pieced cloth, 741/4 x 681/2”. The subject of the story quilt illustrates a
Depression era girl's imaginative foray to heights from which she can see and
therefore claim her world. Picnicking on the roof of her family's Harlem apartment
building - a "tar beach" to which they bring fried chicken and roasted peanuts,
watermelon and beer, and not least, friends and laughter. Cassie pictures herself
soaring above New York City: above the George Washington Bridge, which her
father helped build; above the headquarters of the union that has denied him
membership, because of his half-black, half-Indian heritage; above the rooms in
which they live. Ringgold's strong figures and flattened perspective bring a
distinctive magic to this dreamy and yet wonderfully concrete vision, narrated